


The Space-Faring Prince

by quicksilver_foxheart



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Gen, I CANT WAIT, Roleswap, and those pecking crows are rEALLy annoying, bow and moonjumper swap, but the characters swap roles, cooking cat and mafia boss swap, especially around birdhouse peak, fire spirits and crows swap bc the foxes annoy snatcher, florist sells prince flowers that act as badges/hat powers, follows a hat in time storyline, hat kid is a gREMLIN, hat kid really loves her minions, hk actually enjoys reading, lazy paw gang and mafia swap, mu and vanessa swap, oh yeah the florist and the badgeseller swap, prince does not, snatcher and hat kid swap, the fire spirits and the angry crow enemies swap, they retain their base personality but it molds to match that of the character they swapped with, they're tagged as snatchy's but they're hers, those chapters are gonna be so fun to write, vanessa actually kinda adorable tho?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25888945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilver_foxheart/pseuds/quicksilver_foxheart
Summary: (wanted to call this A Crown in Time but there's already a story on here called that oop-)On his space ride home, the Prince's ship is intercepted by a Lazy Paw goon, who demands he pay a toll because he is over Lazy Paw Town. When the Prince refuses to pay, the Lazy Paw Gang member busts in through the window, causing the Prince and the ship's fuel, the Time Pieces, to be blown out into space. After landing in Lazy Paw Town, the Prince must fight and work to recover his lost Time Pieces.(did i copy and edit that description from the wiki? yes. also this was inspired by an image which I'll link in the story)
Relationships: Hat Kid & Mustache Girl (A Hat in Time), Hat Kid & Snatcher's Minions (A Hat in Time), Hat Kid & Subcon Dwellers (A Hat in Time), Hat Kid & The Prince (A Hat in Time), The Prince & Queen Vanessa (A Hat in Time)
Kudos: 15





	The Space-Faring Prince

He folded his hands behind his back, smiling in satisfaction as he stared up at the large, glowing screen. Just five more lightyears and he´d be back home. Straightening, the Prince made as if to tap something on the screen, but a loud knocking from behind startled him. Drawing his hand back, he whirled around to see a small, orange figure peering in from behind the large glass window across him.

Gulping, he made his way across the large room and over to the glass hatch. As he approached, the knocking stopped and the figure appeared to be a cat standing on its hind legs, much like a human. More human-like, it wore matching brown leather boots and a belt tied around its waist, with, again matching, red bandanas around both head and neck. Its large green eyes peered out from bright orange fur. 

¨Hey! You there!” The cat´s high-pitched meow broke the Prince out of his observations. ¨If you´re gonna’ park your flying boat here, you need to pay the toll in Lazy Paw Town! Ya hear?¨ 

The Prince furrowed his brow, the corners of his mouth drawing in a slight frown. Seriously? He wasn´t even going to stay, he just had to slow the ship to check on the Time Pieces.

¨I´ll come in to collect your pay then!¨ the cat announced, dissatisfied with the lack of response and apparently deciding that barging right in was perfectly acceptable. His eyes widened as the cat easily opened the small hatch and he lunged forward, grasping the handle tightly and pulling back. 

The cat was flung backward a bit from the force of the door shutting as the Prince managed to close it. Somehow managing to slow his speed, the cat´s eyes narrowed in indignation, placing its paws on its hips, just above the belt. ¨So rude!” the cat´s tail lashed, but it was already drifting slowly back down the large planet below.

The Prince stepped back, dusting off his hands and turning to go back to the screen. Whew! That´d been a close one. It seemed the inhabitants of this planet weren´t very friendly, so good thing he didn´t need to land-

He heard the terrible sound of glass shattering and spun around to see that the cat had thrown its body at the door. Immediately, air rushed in, sucking the foolish cat back down to the planet with a cry. He would´ve laughed if he himself weren´t also being sucked in. 

Shards of glass were descending around him, but his stomach fell faster than he was when a Time Piece flew out, hurtling down past him. Several more followed, and he concluded that the force of the space vacuum had managed to open his vault. His heart sank as he watched, dismayed as they hourglasses streamed out. And better yet, they seemed to scatter about across the planet. He _really_ hoped none of them broke….oh, why had he jinxed it by thinking about landing?

* * *

The Prince woke up to find that the cat who broke into his ship and completely ruined his day was now unconscious to the side of him. Sitting up, he groaned as he rubbed the back of his head and looked around. He seemed to have landed in some sort of alleyway because it was actually rather gloomy - at least, where he was, although he could see sunlight shining ahead of him. His hand rubbed the top of his head and he blanched as he noticed his signature crown was missing. Frantically, the brunette stood up, only to see the gold crown was resting on its side beside the cat´s tail. Stupid cat. 

Grumbling, he gingerly picked it up, brushing it off and placing it atop his head once more. Satisfied, he set off down the brick path, hoping to find a friendly local who could help him find his Time Pieces or at least give some info on his whereabouts.

  
  


He´d only taken a few steps, still cast in the shadows of the nearby buildings when two very familiar looking cats flopped down to the ground in front of him. They looked identical to the cat who had basically robbed him of his Time Pieces - ugh - except they looked to be beaten up and were unconscious.

And then a girl hopped down from...somewhere? She placed one foot on the back of the top cat, looking quite victorious with her fists on her hips and long blonde hair gently swaying in the breeze that had picked up, bringing with it the scent of salt and fish. She wore a dark green dress with lighter sleeves and a white hood which was drawn up over her head, while sunlight gleamed on the small, gold, crown-shaped fibula that fastened her cloak together.

He wrinkled his nose, realizing they must be near the sea - although that helped none because a lot of the planet had looked to be covered by the ocean. He opened his mouth to speak but the girl seemed to notice him at that moment because her eyes widened and she darted down the path in the blink of an eye. Not exactly having any other option - he was in an alley after all - he followed, hoping he didn´t seem weird or anything even though he couldn´t really go anywhere else.

He quickly lost sight of the girl, but as he walked, he managed to collect several green orbs. He didn´t know what they were, but maybe he could study them when he got back to his ship.

The Prince couldn´t help but gaze around at the bright, sunny, island town. He bet it must´ve been a really pretty place, once upon a time, but now the buildings were all dilapidated and covered in graffiti. Another thing he noticed was that the place was _crawling_ with more of those orange cats, all of them scarily identical to each other, all just as rude as the first one he´d met. 

An odd sound returned him to the present, tearing his gaze away from watching one of the cats he´d been watching. His eyes widened as he saw a cat balancing on a giant hunk of meat, rolling towards him and taking up the whole path. Thinking quick, the Prince just barely darted out of the way onto some nearby rocks. Panting, he watched as the cat somehow turned around, heading right back the way it´d come. Weird.

Looking around, he noticed a wooden bridge stretching from the rocky area he was on to some ledge of sorts. Well, half of a bridge, as there was a gap, probably for that rolling cat to get through. Approaching the bridge, the wood creaked underfoot, but he lept before he could even think about it. Landing across the short gap, he noticed yet another cat watching him, this one wearing a yellow hard hat even though he could see the edge of the red bandana underneath, which he supposed made sense, considering the crane looming above.

He turned away and had to narrowly dodge out of the way of a fireball, the sender twirling about in place. It looked like a fox, except like the cats, it stood on its back legs.

¨Hey!¨ The Prince cried indignantly, half-wishing he had something to whack it back with. Why was everyone here so rude?! Glaring at the fox as it lobbed another fireball at him, he ducked under the metal pipe, having to avoid another fox. Thankfully, the first one seemed to have lost interest, so he was easily enough able to avoid the second one, hopping off of the ledge. He noticed a ladder leading up the side of the building. Aha! If he could get up there, he could get a better vantage point and see if any of the Time Pieces were nearby. As soon as he set foot upon the building topped with a large gold dome, he saw movement from the corner of his eye.

Turning, the Prince watched as the girl from before rose up the side of the tower, balancing on a rope. Her hood was pushed back and he noticed that she too wore a crown, although hers was much larger and shinier.

¨Hey there! You down there!¨ she called out. ¨I´m assuming that you’re royalty from the crown on your head. Us royalty should stick together, not stalk one another, don’t ya think?” 

Stalking - what? He hadn’t been stalking her! He was nearly prepared to tell her so, but she continued before he even had the chance to open his mouth.

“Lazy Paw Town can be a rather dangerous place, you know. Oh! I know! Why don’t you join my little rebellion?” 

Rebellion? He opened his mouth to ask, but once again was cut off. 

“Say, by the way, do you know anything about that junk falling from the sky?” His eyes widened! Surely she meant the Time Pieces! “Yeah, you’ve got quite a bit of cleaning up to do!”

She paused here for a moment, considering. “Tell you what, you get up here and I’ll show you where some of your stuff landed!” Clapping her hands, she retreated inside the tower, her head poking out from the window. 

Frowning, the Prince looked around, wondering how he’d possibly get up there. He stumbled back onto a large button that he’d somehow missed and watched as the crane from before swiveled, lowering what it’d been carrying, which conveniently served as a platform. But why there was a random button to control the crane on a building, he could not figure out.

Hopping nimbly across the crates and into the tower, the girl smiled at him, before turning around. “Onwards, rebel squad!” She cheered, hopping out of the tower. The Prince blinked, peering out of the tower at the drop. But, he reasoned, he _had_ just fallen from space, so a much shorter drop ought to be okay.

Taking a deep breath, he propelled himself out of the opening, landing in a planter beside the girl. They set off down the path, coming to another gaping hole, except this one led to the river below.

“I think I saw one of those things landed and smashed right into the fountain. Destroyed it pretty bad, too Just don’t make eye contact with the Lazy Paw cats - and keep a close eye on your stuff - and you’ll be fine. Good luck, fellow rebel!” With that, the blonde-haired girl was off, leaving him to dodge one of those stupid fire foxes and somehow leap across the gap.

As he landed in the plaza-like area, the Prince noticed a cat holding a Time Piece in one paw and a blue umbrella in the other. From the way its eyes flicked back and forth at them smugly, it wasn’t hard to imagine they were freshly stolen.

Frowning, he approached the cat. “Hey! That’s mine, thank you very much.”

The cat seemed to raise an eyebrow, its fur rising along its spine as it shook its head. The Prince huffed, stalking towards the cat, but it held the umbrella in front of him, blocking as he held the Time Piece away with the other hand.

He attempted to shove the umbrella out of the way, but the cat was surprisingly strong and growled about as he pushed. It gave him a smug glare, looking at its outstretched paw to admire the gleaming hourglass. 

Seeing his moment, the Prince snatched the umbrella away from the cat, holding it out like a sword. The cat's eyes widened and it fled, wailing. Hah! Coward!

He chased the cat around the wrecked fountain, managing to whack it with the umbrella a couple of times. It made a pretty good weapon considering it was an umbrella. On the third hit, the cat dropped the hourglass as it fled. 

Triumphantly, he pocketed the Time Piece just in time to hear a rather familiar voice shouting. 

Eyes widened in alarm, the alien prince ran down a flight of stairs across the plaza to see a familiar face surrounded by a whole group of those cats.

He approached, the umbrella held out confidently in front of him. 

“Hey! Oh, thank goodness!” the girl seemed very relieved, especially upon seeing his new ‘weapon.’ “Think you can help a rebel out?”

The battle was fairly quick. Although strong, the cats were rather dumb, and although they tried to throw barrels at him - _who the heck put spikes on an exploding barrel?! -_ he was quickly able to defeat the ginger-furred gang members.

Much to his delight, one of them - the ‘leader’ of the little group - dropped another Time Piece. Pocketing this one as well, he turned around to face the girl.

“Pshht, what a bunch of furry losers,” she rolled her eyes. “Y’knowww, you’re not bad there, buddy. You got a name?” 

There was an awkward, yet short, silence.

“No? Are ya shy? I don’t bite, promise!” She said with a bit of a tease. “That’s cool though. You’re a less talking, more fighting kind of guy, huh? I’ll just call you...Prince!”

Prince blinked. Geez, she sure was kinda pushy. 

“My name's Vanessa! Anyway, are you collecting those hourglass thingies? I happen to know where more of them are,” she said in a sing-song voice.

Oh, _finally_! Someone could help him.

“They’ve been raining from the sky ever since you fell. The Lazy Paw cats - or rather, Lazy Cats,” she snickered to herself at the clever nickname, “have taken them up to their headquarters, way up there.” She pointed up to the tower in the sky, so high that Prince could see clouds swirling around.

“We can go up there and get your junk back! It’ll be fun!” Her greenish-blue eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’ll take _any_ opportunity that involves messing with those mangy cats!”

Prince felt a grin matching hers slide across his face. Looking up at the tower, he beamed them both back up to his ship.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this: https://shazzbaa.tumblr.com/post/178705592008/i-saw-this-post-proposing-a-hat-in-time-au-where
> 
> i saw this and just went :0
> 
> imagining the prince trying to be friends with a demon child is also really fun too. like he's protective of her in a dadcher kinda way and she's like "no peck you leave me alone peck neck" but is very much a soon-deh-ray
> 
> also I'm making designs for the main characters so if anyone wants to see them maybe ill post em


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